Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s extraordinary career spans five decades. He has gone beyond ‘a Brazilian politician’ and become one of the most fascinating political operators of our young century.

In October 2022, Lula was once again elected President of Brazil, replacing the far-right strongman Bolsonaro, sparking an insurrection, and exiling the fallen demagogue to Trump-friendly circles in the US. He won by promising to save the Amazon (and, therefore, the world) and, as ever, to give power back to the Brazilian people. This has long been the dream of Latin American left-wing movements – many of which have ended in corruption, disaster and death. Lula has survived at least three curtain calls. Imprisoned for corruption in the notorious ‘Car Wash’ scandal, voted out, bullied and beaten, Lula continues to draw huge crowds of workers wherever he goes. He speaks of revolution and comes from the streets of São Paulo, and yet he is enmeshed in hidden bank accounts and lobbying scandals. When Barack Obama met Lula during his second term as President of Brazil in 2009, he called him ‘the most popular politician in the world’.

This is the definitive book on Lula. Richard Lapper ran the FT bureau on Latin America for two decades, and lived in Brazil for many years. He is the world’s foremost expert on Brazilian politics. His previous biography of Bolsonaro was for many the best book on the so-called Trump of the Tropics. Lapper’s unparalleled reporting and access have now turned to Lula, whose story encapsulates so much of why Latin America’s left-wing movements both excite and fascinate us in the West.